Michael Kunze
Halcyon Days
6.4. – 30.6.2013

The paintings by Michael Kunze (born in 1961 in Munich) are filled with reflections on literature and philosophy, and on the history of art and architecture. He translates these reflections into enigmatic, seemingly irrational sceneries, architectural constructions and utopian landscapes. The exhibition will present paintings from the last 20 years of his work, which can be read as an endless commentary on Arnold Böcklin’s “Isle of the Dead”. Kunze endeavours to make connections that have almost been forgotten today. The “halcyon days” are a recurring motif in his work.

Friedrich Nietzsche, who was plagued by headaches, used this metaphor to describe the times when his health improved. Time and again, Michael Kunze paints architectural compositions under a cloudy sky and steeped in dramatic Mediterranean light. Multilayered contrasts of form and content dominate his work, in which fragments of modern and pre-modern architecture collide.

Curated by Gregor Jansen

The exhibition and catalogue are being produced in cooperation with the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin.

michael-kunze-studio.​com

Please find here the catalogue of the exhibition.